


How We Ruled the World

by Noel_Casidy



Series: FAHC-verse [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Drinking, Drugs, Eventual Character Death, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fake AH Crew, Jealousy, M/M, Multi, Not Beta Read, POV of OC, Slow Burn, Torture, Trans Jack Pattillo, Violence, as usual, mentions of past abuse/torture, not very dialogue heavy, ryan being creepy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-30 11:51:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12653004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noel_Casidy/pseuds/Noel_Casidy
Summary: “So the best option was kidnapping?”“It was an accident?”“How is kidnapping an accident!”“Y’know how some people accidentally give birth…”“I really want to know where you thought you were going with this cause you lost me.”





	1. The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty

**Author's Note:**

> So I am currently writing this for NaNoWriMo 2017 and I'm terrified as fuck. This is gonna be like super slow burn. I'm talkin I'm already 9 chapters in and there's no romance at all yet. Oops. All the tags will become true eventually. This is gonna be like super long so good luck and have fun.

When Caterina was younger she was afraid of the dark. Understandably so, you did not grow up Los Santos without a fear of something. Some people were afraid of gunshots, some fire, some heights, but everyone was afraid of something. Everyone had a reason to be terrified of something, but her fear was ingrained in her since she was a young girl, she never knew the reason for her fear. It was always there. She thought, reasonably, that her mother must have a good reason to teach her that fear early, but she had no clue why her mother would.

Los Santos was a large place, but only if you’re an outsider. From the perspective of someone who lives there, it seemed like the borders of the city were constricting. The city was always holding you back, it always seemed like you could never be good enough to live there. 

One time walking around Los Santos with her dog, Caterina nearly got lost. The winding streets and dark alleys muddled her brain and she forgot where she was for a moment. In her confusion she ran into a man. She looked up at him, he turned to face her and she could see the intricate moustache on his face, the winding tattoos on his arms. She turned and ran around him squeaking out something akin to an apology. Her face burned.

She returned home after the incident and never told her mother what had happened, or how uneasy the man made her feel.

The next day when walking her dog, she felt a gaze piercing her back, and when she turned her back, the man with the tattoos was there. She ran the rest of the way home, and when her mom asked her why she did, she just said she needed to get into shape. She never told her mother about the man, she just thought that he was part of her imagination. She never wanted her mother to find out about the man, if he was real or not.

For the next few weeks, everywhere Caterina went she saw the man with the tattoos, sometimes he would have a woman with him. She had fiery red hair and always wore very tropical shirts. After a few weeks of being stalked, she stopped seeing them. She put them down as just being her overactive imagination. She never thought about them again until one day they popped up in her life again.

When her mother turned on the news that night, she was surprised to see who was headlining. It was the two people she had been seeing for weeks prior to now. She had coined them Jack and Jill, she thought it was very fitting for them. They were on the news for something involving a bank and a lot of money and guns. She did not pay attention to it, but her mother seemed upset by this news. 

The TV was filled with videos of the crime, all she could pick out was Jill shooting a copious amount of people. She had a fleeting thought of that being bad and that she should stop that, but the thought was gone before she could expand on it or even really think too deep.

The next few days her mother caught on to her strange behavior and asked how she was doing. All she said was that she was getting sick and it would be over in a few days. Her mother did not ask any more questions after that, thinking her daughter was just going through a phase at the moment and left the whole situation alone.

The next few weeks were strange for the girl. She did not feel safe anywhere anymore, although it was hard to feel safe in Los Santos, the police department was a joke and crime ran rampant across the entire city, but she felt even more on edge after seeing the news from weeks before, of Jack and Jill robbing that bank. She felt at every corner one of them would be waiting there to take her away and corrupt her. She even stopped feeling safe in her own house, she knew eventually she would have to own up and tell her mother what was going on, but she was scared that then her mother would never let her outside the house alone again. 

A few weeks later the inevitable happened, she ran into Jack on the street. She did not know if he would recognize her or not, so she kept her head down and hoped for the best. It seemed to have worked until he turned around and asked her if he knew her. She said nothing, but allowed him to stare at her for a few moments. Eventually he brushed it off and said he thought she was someone else. She walked the rest of the way home with her breath held.

Later that week she also ran into Jill in the middle of the street, but this time was less eventful than when she ran into Jack. There was not really any interaction between them, she thought that Jill must not of seen her face, and that was why she did not say anything.

It was relatively quiet the next few weeks regarding Jack and Jill, she did not have another run in with either of them for the longest time. She was glad for the peace and quiet. It was finally starting to feel like she was getting her life back, day by day, week by week, she was becoming less afraid of her city. It went downhill a few weeks later.

 

 

 

It was weeks after her last run in with Jack or Jill when she ran into a man, who looked to be around ten years older than her, around the same age and Jack and Jill, who she thought would fit into their group very nicely. He was wearing a skull mask and had leather jacket on and just all-around seemed like a very creepy person. He seemed to pick up on the fear coming from her and made himself seem more intimidating by squaring his shoulders and standing up taller. She was looking everywhere except his face and in doing so she caught a glimpse of the knife in his hand, which seemed to be covered in blood and in turn also caught a glimpse of the gun holstered at his hip. She turned and ran as quickly as she could away from the strange man.

A few days later when she was going to grab the paper from the doorstep to her house she took note that the cover story had a picture of the creepy skull guy on it. She took the paper out and took a look at the headline, “Does the Vagabond strike again, or is it Just Another Copycat?” She did not know what vagabond meant, but she thought it was a fitting title for the strange man, and now looking back at their ‘meeting’ she could almost say that there had been blood on the knife. She shuddered as she thought about what could have been going on in that alley.

Her mother again picked up on her sour mood and asked it she was okay. She again said that she must just be getting sick and the conversation was dropped from there. She again tried to gain the courage to tell her mother that these three very creepy people were following her around, but in the end could not find the determination to tell her. Eventually her mother stopped giving her strange stares and completely dropped the subject with her. 

She was again scared to walk around in her own city and again was afraid she would never be able to confidently walk around Los Santos again. She was always living in fear of Jack and Jill, and that creepy Vagabond dude. She finally decided to takes matters into her own hands and did a little bit of research on them.

Her walk to the city library was quick and uneventful. Filled with unfamiliar faces and familiar buildings. She walked up the stairs to the massive building and breathed a sigh of happiness. She had not been to the library in months, and the enormous building always felt like home to her, and walking inside was like being reunited with a long lost family member. She walked briskly to the computer lab found in the right side of the building. As she walked up to a computer, she was suddenly filled with one part anticipation and one part fear at what she might find. When she sat down at the computer the fear finally overtook and she almost backed out of it. She did not want to know who the Vagabond was, but she also wanted to know how dangerous he would be to her.

The fear finally went away when she typed the words VAGABOND NEWS. In a few seconds thousands of news articles about the Vagabond popped up. She was suddenly overwhelmed with all the articles that popped up. She started with the first one that caught her eye, “The Vagabond: Is he Really a Threat to Los Santos?” That seemed like a good place to start. She skimmed the article and found only the most basic information about him. No one new his real name, no one knew what his face looked like, hence the mask. No one knew his real age, most people guessing around 20. He started this only a few years ago, this being a mercenary, gun for hire. Everyone claimed to know what his true identity was, but no one was willing to give away whatever information they claimed to have.

She sifted through plenty of other articles about the Vagabond, but in the end just had a very basic understanding of who he was. She still did not feel safe around the man. Why should someone feel safe around a man that kills for hire though, she thought. She wondered if even the people that hired him felt safe around him. Even without talking to him she could tell he was the beginning of a true psychopath.

She left the computer lab and decided to just walk around the library, and maybe get some new books to read. Her walk around the library, and eventually home was relatively uneventful, until she ran into a boy around her age, he had sightly darker skin and was carrying a pink DS. She instantly liked him and thought they should be friends. He looked up from his DS long enough to say hello to her. When she did not reply fast enough he looked up and put his DS in his pocket and said hello to her again. This time when she actually said hello back, there was a glimpse of a smile on his lips. 

They struck up a conversation about the game he was playing as they walked around for awhile. When they were done talking about his game, they started talking about anything and everything. From family to friends to school, but she kept one thing secret from him, Jack, Jill and the Vagabond, and the fact that they seem to be following her. While they were talking, he offered to walk her home and she agreed, thinking there was safety in numbers, but then again, the was also death in numbers, massacres. She made it home safely after all and when she said goodbye to him, she told him that she would walk him home tomorrow and he said that she would not want to see where he lives. She wondered how bad it could possibly be. 

It was too late to ask him, but she wondered what his name was, and she found it odd that he did not offer her his name, but then again she never offered him her name. She wondered if he would actually meet her after school the next day and decided to leave it up to fate.

The boy kept his promise, and the next day after school, he was there to walk her home. This time she was sure to ask his name and was rewarded with, hopefully, his real name, Ray. She then gave him her name, and their conversation carried on much like the day before. She was ranting about school when she abruptly stopped. She asked him where he went to school. 

Ray suddenly stopped walking, he turned towards her. Their seemed to be something akin to a glare on his face. He looked straight into her eyes, straight into her soul it seemed. His voice seemed like pure ice when he told her not to ask about his that ever again. Fear struck her like a bullet. Her thoughts were going a mile a minute, full of I never should have trusted him, he is not who he says he is, no one is who they say they are, I can no longer trust anyone in this city. 

The thoughts were over before they started, she smiled and agreed to never speak of it again.

They walked together in relative silence, only making idle comments about people as they passed them. As they were nearing closer to her house, Ray turned toward her and asked her if she still wanted to see where he lived. She agreed and they started off in a different direction. 

On their way to Ray’s house, she thought that she see the Vagabond across the street, but did not get a good enough look at the man. Although how hard could it be to spot a skull mask-wearing person in the middle of the street.

Another time she thought she saw Jack. And another time she was sure that she saw Jill standing in front of a liquor store, a boy around her age with fiery red hair standing fiercely at her side. She had another fleeting thought about how they were probably following her, but it was gone once Ray turned to her and started talking animatedly about a new video game he wanted to get. 

They continued on down a desolate street. By now they were closer to the outskirts of Los Santos, heading closer and closer to Traverse City. Eventually they stopped in front of what looked like an abandoned house. Ray turned around and held his arms up in a show of grandeur and said something along the lines of that place being his ‘humble abode’.

She turned to face him fully and gave him a weak smile. He offered to give her a tour, she accepted, it could not be easy to show someone this. As they walked around the tiny house she had a thought about where his mother and father must be. She must have spoken aloud, since he replied to her. Ray said that he never met his father, and his mother died in a shootout when he was ten. That was about five years ago, he told her sadly. She could not believe losing her mother to all the violence that Los Santos has to offer. Ray told her that he moved to this house after his mom died, and pays everything off by running drug deals for a local gang.

She could not fully comprehend how anyone would willingly lead a life of crime. There was nothing to gain from it, except certain death or rotting in a jail cell. But if it was the only way to care for yourself after both of your parents died, she supposed there was nothing else he could do.

He left her in silence in what was probably the living room and went to get something out of the kitchen, possibly water, for sure it was something to drink. She asks for him to get her something, but she does not know if she actually says it out loud. When she finally regains her thoughts, Ray is standing there with a glass of water. She does not know how long he’s been standing there, and felt slightly embarrassed.

He asked her how impressed she was with his abode, and she told him not to joke about his situation. She offered to let him stay at her house with her mother and he said that saying that to him was basically insulting him. She apologized to him and promised to never bring it up again.

Ray offered to walk her home from his house, but she refused. It was hard to look at him now that she knows what he does to pay for his house. It's hard to trust even your best friends now a days. No one is who they say they are anymore. Everyone has secrets now.

On her way home, her mind started wandering to darker places. She started wondering how much Ray’s gang payed to do drug deals. She was wondering how much they payed. Maybe she could move out of her mom’s house and live with Ray. That seemed like a good idea at the start, but now that she started to think more in depth about that, she could see all sorts of problems arising with that living situation.

When she got home, her mother started on a rant about how she did not know where her daughter was, and how she was gonna call the police if Caterina was not home soon. She idly thought that the police were a joke, what would they do about it. All she said to her mother was that she was at a friend’s house and they got carried away with a video game. Her mother accepted that excuse with little reluctance.

She went to bed that night to the thoughts of gangs and drug deals. Not the most reassuring to most people, but when you grow up in the midst of Los Santos’ crimes, you eventually fall asleep to those thoughts.


	2. Where the Wild Things Are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jill held out her hand in greeting. “Hello, Caterina. My name is Jack, and I would very much appreciate it if you came with us without complaint.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi I'm not good at writing here have some more trash

She was nervous going to school the next day, and with all due respect, she should be nervous. She walked around school with a secret weighing her down. She reluctantly went to each of her classes and felt like all of her teachers could see right through her, that all of them could see this secret that she was keeping. She left school feeling guilty. She met up with Ray on the corner a few blocks away from her school. That was when she finally spoke her secret out loud. 

She told Ray that she wanted in. She wanted in the gang, in on the drug deals, in on all the money they bring in. There was no expression on Ray’s face. It seemed like all emotion had been drained from his face. Eventually he agreed to let her meet his boss in a few days. Ray said that right now his boss was away on a ‘business trip’. She did not want to know what a business trip was, but she was almost completely sure that it included murder and plenty of other illegal things. 

Today they were going to her house, since her mother had to stay at work late to finish working on something or other, so she knew that it was safe for him to come over. When they finally made it to her house, his face was again void of any emotion. She wondered how he felt seeing the house that she and her mother lived in compared to the shack that he currently resided in. 

He put on a mask of indifference as he walked into her house and finally saw how big her house was on the inside. She and her mother were not rich, but they were not poor. They were well off in their own means and could afford to live in a bigger house since she went to public school. She may have lived in a larger house, but that did not mean that she enjoyed it. She was on the richer side of her class, and that was the only reason she had any friends.

She wondered for a moment if it was insensitive bringing Ray here when he lived in the equivalent of a garage. She probably should have warned him about the drastic change in lifestyle between the two of them.

She overcame the awkwardness of him seeing her house for the first time and offered to get him something to drink. When he agreed she walked him to the living room, then went to get him some water to drink, and also got some snacks for herself. By the time she got back to the living room, Ray had already booted up her Xbox and was loading up Battlefield. She did not ask any questions, just sat down next to him, gave him his water, and proceeded to watch him play through the game.

Around 5 o'clock, she ushered him out the door, offered to walk him home, and when he refused, she said goodbye and closed the door on him. When she finally turned away from the door, she moved slowly throughout the house, picking up the mess that she and Ray had left behind before her mother got home.

When her mother got home, she had almost finished cleaning up the house. Her mother questioned why she had to clean up, and had a minor reaction of disbelief when Caterina said that she had a friend over. Thankfully, her mother choose not to question why she had a boy over and did not tell her mother ahead of time. 

Her mother left the subject alone until dinner, when she decided it would be an opportune time time to ask her why exactly she had a boy over and refused to tell her mother ahead of time. When Caterina gave no answer, her mother still did not give up. She kept relentlessly bugging her about Ray. She finally stopped when dinner was over and Caterina had to retreat to her room to do her homework.

Her mother did not bring Ray up when she went to bed, and left him out of the conversation at breakfast. She seemed to have gotten over her infatuation with Ray for the time being. Caterina realized that it would be a good idea to keep rays identity a secret from her mother, because who knows what would come up if she researched him. She did not want her mother knowing that she was willingly hanging out with a criminal.

She decided to lay low about hanging with Ray for the next few weeks, just incase. She still either walked him home, or let him walk her home, but she never stayed over at his house and he never stayed over at hers. Her mother still decided that she should question Caterina about Ray. Her mother waltzed into her room while Caterina was doing homework and sat on her bed with more grace and finesse than Caterina could ever hope to have.

She started relentlessly questioning Caterina about Ray, what’s his name, where does he live, how old is he, where does he go to school, how did you meet him, is he a good friend, do you love him, have you met his parents, when will i get to meet them, when will I get to meet him, and why are you hiding him from me. When she realized that she would get no response out of Caterina, her mother stopped the questioning and just stared at her. Caterina did not drop her gaze, accepting her mother’s silent challenge. After a few minutes her mother dropped her gaze, sighed, and got up from Caterina’s bed and left her alone for the night, only coming back in her room to say goodnight to Caterina.

A few days later she and Ray finally decided that they could start staying over at eachothers houses after Caterina was done with school, and Ray could help her with homework in between games. 

Caterina’s mother finally decided to get off her back about Ray and let her have him over even when she was at home. They slowly became closer and closer, until they could trust each other with every secret they have. The only secret that Caterina kept was the one about Jack, Jill, the Vagabond, and the boy with fire for hair. Caterina did not know when she would be able to trust Ray with that secret.

The day finally came where Ray would take Caterina to meet his boss to talk about getting her a job. He took her to one of the skyscrapers Caterina passed with her mother all the time when they went deeper into the city. Caterina was filled with anticipation at meeting Ray’s boss, if everything worked out, she would get a job dealing drugs with Ray. She tried to mentally prepare herself for what awaited her on the other side of that door but nothing could prepare her for what she actually saw.

 

 

When Ray opened the door, Caterina was in no way prepared for the man on the other side of that door. She expected someone who was big and burly and was full of muscle, but instead came face to face with a man who seemed to be all skin and bones. Caterina tried to gain some semblance of confidence, people like him could sense fear from a mile away, and she did not want to give off the wrong impression when asking for a job.

Ray went ahead of Caterina and addressed the man in front of her as Shadles. That seemed like a fitting name for the man. Ray introduced her, told Shadles what Caterina was here for, then stepped aside. The rest of her time with Shadles passed in a blur, she only remembered asking for the job and him accepting her into his crew, and him telling her that her first job would be with Ray later this week. Now Caterina just had to keep this a secret from her mother, not that it would be that hard in theory, but she did not know how long she would be able to keep it up.

She and Ray practically skipped all the way back to his house, full of glee at Caterina getting the job and now being able to side-by-side with Ray. When they got to his house they finally embraced each other, and sighed a breath of relief, at least Caterina’s was a breath of relief, Ray’s might have been a sigh of fear of what is to come.

They spent the rest of the night at Ray’s house, Caterina had texted her mom that she was staying at Ray’s house overnight, since it was Friday anyways. Caterina’s first drug deal would be on Sunday, oh the irony, so Ray had to prepare her for it.

On sunday Ray and Caterina were waiting in an alley waiting for their client to show up so they could make the deal. They were waiting nearly an hour after the client was supposed to show when he finally appeared at the end of the alley and slowly started approaching them. Before he fully reached them, Caterina realized who it was. It was the redhead from earlier that month. She held her breath during the whole time, but it turned out that Ray and the boy, Michael knew each other, they used to go to school together. She made a note in the back of her mind to ask Ray about that later. It seemed like Michael did not recognize Caterina, or at least he did not show that he knew her, if he did. 

After the deal was over, Caterina could breathe a sigh of relief. Michael apparently did not remember her from the first time that he saw her when she had first gone over to Ray’s house. If Ray picked up on her apprehension, he did not say anything. They walked back his house is relative peace and quiet. When they got back to his house Ray congratulated her on her first successful drug deal, even though he manned the entire thing and did all of the talking, he did not mention it.

That night she went back to her house and was greeted by just her dog at the door, there was a note on the kitchen table from her mother saying that she had quickly gone grocery shopping, and that Caterina should go to bed if her mother did not get home by their usual bedtime. Caterina decided to go to bed early anyways since she had school the next day, and even though she did not do anything in the deal today, she was still uncharacteristically tired.

Through the haze of sleep she vaguely acknowledged that her mother came home, she was out before her mother could say goodnight to her and ask her about her day.

The next morning as she was getting ready for school, Caterina’s mom came into her room and asked her how things went with Ray over the weekend. Caterina decided to leave it and did not say anything about it. After a while her mother left her room when Caterina refused to give her any information. Caterina got ready for school in silence, no longer interrupted by her mother.. After a while her mother left her room and let her get ready for school.

Her day at school was uneventful at best. None of her classes were interesting enough to keep her attention and her friends only talked about school. She felt like an outsider looking in now that she was working in the crime syndicate. Nothing felt normal anymore, and keeping her secret was like carrying the world on her shoulders, but she knew she could never tell anyone, no, this had to be her secret.

After school let out, Ray was again at the corner a block away from her school. They walked to her house from there and filled their time with meaningless conversations about the most random things. 

After they arrived at Caterina’s house, they ate junk food and played video games until Caterina’s mother got home, then Ray left, and Caterina and her mother were left to awkward silence.

“I do not want this to turn into something that will distract you from your schoolwork, Caterina.” Her mother started ranting at her, “You need to focus more on school, your grades are starting to slip and your friends are getting concerned about you. I do not want you to get caught up in a relationship with that disgrace of a human being.”

“Why is he a disgrace?” Caterina could feel her voice rising. “Is it because his parents are dead. Is it because he’s too scared to go into foster care. Is it because he’s trying his hardest to take care of himself in a world that wants him to fail.”

Her mother was silent after that. Caterina-1, mom-0. Her mother resigned into the kitchen with a sigh. She did not really approve of Ray. She thought that he was dragging Caterina down in life, when really he was showing her more opportunities to grow.

The next day was almost the same as the previous, Caterina went to all her classes, wrote down notes, but did not actively absorb any information. She talked to her friends, well more like stood on the outside of the group and grunted in response when anyone looked at her. She knew that she should care more about her grades and her relationship with all her friends, but she could care less about that stuff right now.

This time after school she and Ray did not go to her house. They also did not go to her house. Instead they went deeper into the city and climbed up to a rooftop today. Since they did not want to be disturbed by Caterina’s mother, she shut her phone completely down and put it at the bottom of her backpack.

She and Ray sat there in relative silence, only broken by the occasional car honking down on the street below. Caterina decided there was something peaceful about sitting on the top of a rooftop. There it felt like you were untouchable. It felt like all your fears suddenly went away and nothing could touch you. Being on a rooftop was a surreal experience, especially when you were up there with someone else.

She finally broke the silence. “How do you and Michael know each other.” Wow Caterina, great way to start a conversation, she thought to herself. 

Ray went still, he had been swinging his legs before, but now they were still, save from the wind making them move slightly. “What a strange time to bring him up. Why do you want to know how we know each other.”

His voice sounded different, it sounded darker, it made him seem more deadly. She was suddenly very scared of what Ray could do to her.

“I was just wondering why you knew him. I do not know” she stammered out.

He glared at her. She knew that he would not give up any information. Maybe she could plead to his better side and give away the fact that she was being followed, but she ended up not telling him.

The mood slowly lightened and Ray slowly started swinging his feet again. They went back to their normal conversations and everything felt alright for now.

The next few weeks were strange for Caterina. She did not see Jack, Jill, the Vagabond or Michael. She continued her daily meetings with Ray on rooftops. They did drug deals every once in awhile.

Today felt slightly off for reasons Caterina still had not figured out. It seemed her life had gotten normal again. Back to the way it was before Jack and Jill were in her life. She did not feel like a criminal, she did not know what had changed, and she was not sure she liked it, whatever it was.

She went to school, participated in class and in the conversations between her friends, and had a generally normal life. The only odd part of her day was the fact that Ray was no longer at their corner after she got out of school. The week continued like that, and it all climaxed to Saturday, when she was walking around. She was walking down Premiere Lane, and when she turned a corner, they were there. Jack and Jill. Caterina tried to turn around and run away, but Ray caught her and turned her around to face them. She had not noticed he was following her, even though she had kept checking to see if someone was trailing her.

Jill held out her hand in greeting. “Hello, Caterina. My name is Jack, and I would very much appreciate it if you came with us without complaint.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you liked that and you want more trash my tumblr is Asexualfandomvoyager.


	3. Hit and Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caterina was quiet. She always wanted an explanation to the strange things happening in her life, but now she was not so sure anymore. The truth was worse than not knowing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have more trash *throws this into the void*

Caterina did not know where she was anymore. She had been blindfolded and thrown in a car. She had no clue where they could possibly be, she knew where they had started, but they had taken so many turns and doubled back so many times that she could not keep track of it anymore. 

She stopped paying attention to conversation that Jack, Jill and Ray were having as soon as she realized they were speaking Spanish. She could pick out a few words here and there when she listened. She was using her knowledge of French and her reliance on the fact that Spanish and french were very similar.

Finally the car stopped. She vaguely heard doors opening and slamming closed. Someone grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and pulled her out of the car. They pushed her forwards and she stumbled a few times before she finally found her footing. She was roughly pushed up the stairs. After she thought she made it through the door, she was knocked out.

She kept gaining and losing consciousness. She gathered that she was in a dark room, concrete floors, probably a basement, or cellar, something along those lines. She was tied up, sitting on the floor with her hands tied to a post behind her.

When she finally fully gained consciousness she noticed that Jack, Jill Jack, man that is confusing she thought. 

“Where’s your partner in crime?” She mumbled out incoherently. “Thought you two went everywhere together.”

“Geoff’s taking care of somethings upstairs, but you do not have to be concerned about him just quite yet.” Jack said ominously, and left the room, leaving Caterina to darkness.

Caterina did not know how long she was down there, it could have been days, but that was unlikely considering no one came down to give her food or water. 

It must have been a few hours later when Geoff? came down to talk to her. He shook his head and made a tsking noise when he saw the sorry state that Caterina was in. Some of her clothing was torn, she could feel the dirt all over her face, and the handcuffs were digging uncomfortably into her wrists, digging deep cuts along the tender inside of her wrists and arms.

“I cannot believe they would do this to you,” he was mumbling under his breath. “Do they want to scare you away. I cannot have that. I need you.” He must not have known that she was listening.

He came over to her and undid her handcuffs. Caterina slowly let her arms down and rubbed her wrists. Yup definitely bleeding. It’ll probably need stitches. Geoff leaned down and picked up Caterina’s arm to look at the cuts left by the handcuffs.

He sighed and gently dropped her arm. “I’ll get you some bandages and we can clean you up. Do you want to some new clothes too?”

“Y-yes.” Caterina stammered out. Why was he showing her kindness. She expected him to yell at her, or demand something from her. She was not expecting gentleness.

He slowly got up from crouching down by her. He turned and went up the stairs. Caterina waited a few moments, then she attempted to stand up. She screamed when pressure was put on her feet. She fell down, and when the pain finally subsided she looked down at her feet. The entire bottoms of her feet were sliced up and bleeding profusely. 

She swore and slowly pushed herself toward a wall so she could lean against something. She started breathing heavily and trying not to puke because of the trail of blood on the floor leading to her.

The door at the top of stairs opened and room was bathed in a harsh white light. Caterina shielded her eyes from the light. The door closed and she saw Geoff standing at the top of the stairs. He was holding some clothes and what looked like a bag, probably for medical supplies.

He walked down the stairs slowly, like he was trying not to spook an animal. When he got to the bottom, he cautiously approached Caterina. 

He sat down next to her and told her to put her feet out. She followed without complaint. He slowly examined her feet, a look of concern on his face. He pulled bandages out of his bag and went to wrapping up her feet. 

“Why are you doing this to me?” Caterina asked Geoff when he started wrapping her other foot. 

“Why are we doing what?” Geoff questioned her. “Helping you, or the whole kidnapping thing.”

“Both” she blatantly responded.

“Well,” he started. “The kidnapping was a mistake. Michael gets a little rowdy when there’s fresh blood, and Jack was concerned that you would try to fight the whole time."

“As for helping you,” he said. “I just want to become your friend, and frankly, I think that this is a huge misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding…” Caterina said. “Just one big misunderstanding? How is this a big misunderstanding? Please tell me how you can possibly misunderstand kidnapping someone, and then cutting the bottom of their feet so they cannot run away.” Caterina was yelling now. She was full to the brim with anger. Her mother was probably worried sick about where she was.

Geoff did not respond to her outburst, instead he just continued bandaging up her feet and then moved onto her arms. They were horribly scratched up, most likely from all the rough treatment that Jack and Michael gave her. She wondered idly for a moment where Ray was, and how he got caught up in this mess.

When Geoff was done treating her wounds, the only thing she could do was stare at him blankly. He did not move. She did not move. Finally he sighed and explained everything to her. He explained why she ran into both him and Jack on separate occasions. He explained why they were following her. He even told her that her first meeting with Ray was staged, even the entire beginning of their friendship was staged and completely fake. 

Caterina was quiet. She always wanted an explanation to the strange things happening in her life, but now she was not so sure anymore. The truth was worse than not knowing. 

“Why? Why would you do something like this?” She felt like crying. Caterina’s entire world was coming down around her, and she did not know what she would do, she just wanted her mother right now. She wished none of this would have happened, she wished she could take it all back this moment. 

“Listen, kid. I have a proposition for you, and if you refuse, I might just have to kill you.” Geoff’s easygoing tone was gone, his relaxed blue eyes had turned icy. He no longer seemed like a man who was just doing this for her good.

“What is it?” Caterina wanted to leave. She wanted to crawl into a dark pit somewhere and die and never deal with anything ever again.

“Kid, I want you to be part of my crew.”

“Wait, what?” She questioned. “What does that mean? Crew?”

“Yeah, kid. Crew, like heists and high scale drug deals and the works. Interested at all? Well that’s not a question, it’s either a yes or you die.” Geoff said with a glimmer of a smile on his face.

“But,” Caterina started, “what about my mom and school. I’m supposed to graduate next week. I can’t just drop off the face of the earth a week before graduation.”

“Well, I mean, I’ll let you go back for graduation and then we can figure it out from there.” He said it like they really were going to figure it out, but his eyes said that they already figured it out. Caterina did not think that she would like their solution.

She knew she did not have any choice in the matter, but she did not want to agree to an entire life of crime.

Geoff waited patiently for her answer. Caterina had to make a decision quickly. She closed her eyes, and breathed in and out a few times.

 

 

 

When Caterina walked into the house it was dark and quiet. Her mother must be in bed. She snuck up to her room, not wanting to wake her mother, if she was sleeping. When she finally made it up the stairs and into her bedroom, she startled. Her mother was sleeping in her bed. She padded around her bed silently, and got in the bed opposite of her mother.

She woke up the next morning before her mother. She walked into the kitchen to start coffee for her mother and herself. She sat in the kitchen and pondered what to say to her mother to cover up for the day and a half that she was gone. 

Caterina had just come up with an excuse when her mother walked in. She did not look surprised when she saw Caterina, so she supposed that her mother had already known that she was home. Her mother rested her hip against the counter. Her mother sighed and walked up to Caterina. She wrapped her arms around Cat and breathed to never leave her for that long again, she was so scared. Cat breathed a sigh of relief and let out a breathless laugh. Her mother was not going to rip up the entirety of Los Santos after all.

“Where were you? I was worried sick about you.” Her mother breathed against her head.

“I was at Ray’s and we kinda maybe lost track of time…?” Caterina lied effectively. She did not feel good about lying to her mother, but she could not tell her what actually happened yesterday. She could not tell anyone about what happened.

The day went on like most Sundays did, Cat and her mother lied around the house with the dog, Tori. They started a marathon of marvel movies and just vegged out the rest of the day.

When Caterina had to go to school the next day, she reluctantly got out of bed and got ready for the day. Caterina surprised herself by actually paying attention to her classes and having relatively normal conversations with her friends.

When the next friday came around, she reluctantly went to Ray’s house after school and he drove her to Geoff’s house in a suspiciously fancy car. 

When they arrived at Geoff’s house, it was extremely large Caterina thought to herself, they walked through the front door and were greeted right away with a very bubbly British man, sunglasses inside? Really? Caterina thought. He was very excitedly babbling to Ray about something or another involving computers. Ray did not seem like he was paying attention. 

Ray directed Caterina up the stairs near the front door. He lead her into a room which they had affectionately named ‘The Heist Room’. When they turned into it Geoff was sitting on the table that took up a majority of the large room. He was talking animatedly to Jack. There was a pile of files near the middle of the table, they were strewn like they had been thrown there. Ray cleared his throat to announce their arrival at the room. Geoff turned around and leaped off the table in excitement at seeing Caterina. 

“Hey, kid! How’s it going?” He asked as he hugged her.

“Okay, I guess,” was her muffled response. Geoff slowly let of of Caterina and directed her to sit by the files haphazardly thrown on the table. Geoff sat opposite of her and suddenly he became very serious. He browsed through the files in front of them and passed one over to her. On the front of the manilla folder it said ‘FAKE AH CREW MAIN MEMBER #6/7: Caterina Costello ADRIANA CARPETTI’. Caterina went to open the folder, but Geoff’s hand on her wrist stopped her. His icy gaze seemed to pierce her soul.

“Proceed with caution.” He said. Caterina wanted to laugh, but the look on his face said that he was to be taken seriously. She slowly opened the file and was shocked when she saw her face. Well, it looked like her face, but her hair was shorter, darker and part of it was shaved off, so it her face looked like it had changed shape. Her eyes were green in the photo, and her eyebrows were a different shape. She went down the first page. Her first name and everything about her was changed. She turned the page. It was just a bunch of paragraphs.

“What is this?” Caterina asked Geoff, quietly. 

He started to grin. “That is all information that you have to have memorized by tomorrow, Adriana.”

“My name is Caterina, not Adriana.” Cat said defiantly.

“Not anymore it’s not. If you want in on the Fake AH Crew, you have to leave your old life behind. I will still allow you to graduate, but after graduation, you’re faking your death and coming straight to us and starting your life as Adriana Carpetti,” Geoff said grimly. “Caterina Costello will be dead after June 5th.” 

Caterina knew that she should refuse the deal with Geoff now, but she knew that if she backed out now, she would die by his hands very soon.

“Okay, Geoff, I’ll kill Caterina.” Adriana said.

Geoff smiled, slow and meticulous, ice in his eyes growing, covering his entire face. Adriana knew her face reflected his. 

 

Today Caterina Adriana was embracing the life of crime. She knew what she was doing by giving her life up to crime, but she found that she did not really care, it was a better alternative to what her life as Caterina would have been

 

Today in every way except physical, Caterina Costello was dead, Adriana rose from the ashes of Cat’s worthless life.

 

Today Adriana felt like she was finally alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tumblr is asexualfandomvoyager


	4. Chapter 4

Adriana knew that the next few weeks would be difficult. No one else knew yet that Caterina was no more, of course they would soon, she and Geoff just had to go over the details. Adriana just had to respond to the name Caterina when called. 

She started gathering the things that she needed to fully start her life as Adriana. She used some money that Geoff gave her to buy colored contacts and hair dye. She bought an entirely new wardrobe for herself, she would burn all of Caterina’s clothes when she had the chance. 

After the last few weeks of school passed, and graduation was looming just around the corner, Adriana felt like it was finally time to finish dropping ties with her friends. She had been distant with them ever since she killed the obnoxious part of brain that was Caterina. She stopped talking to her friends all together a few days before graduation, but they just brushed it off as nervousness and kept including her in everything that they did, even though she showed obvious disinterest. 

When graduation rolled around a few days later, Caterina went up and got her diploma, shook hands, and celebrated with a blank face ad no interest in what was happening. She threw her cap and took pictures with her friends and family, the entire time Adriana was counting down the minutes and seconds until she would be free to live with her crew.

When she got home, her mother was gushing with pride, but Adriana just ignored her and went to her room to decompress. An hour or so later she came out of her room and told her mother that she was going for a drive.

“Okay,” her mother started. “Where are you going? When will you be home?”

“I’m just driving around and I’ll be home before ten at most.” Adriana lied smoothly.

“K, be safe. Love you!” Her mother shouted as she walked out the door, she didn't respond to her mother, thinking that it did not matter what she said to her mother, she would think that Adriana Caterina would be dead in a few hours anyway. 

When Adriana got in the car, she called Geoff immediately. They went over the plan again, and Adriana set of to go through with it. She started to drive toward the sea. She and Geoff had come up with the plan that she would drive to a cliff, put a brick on the accelerator and the car would drive itself off, and hopefully it would get lost at sea.

She found a sufficient cliff and finished the plan. Afterwards she walked to the next main road and stopped someone who was driving by.

“Excuse me, sir. Where are you headed?” Adriana asked in her most polite voice.

“Headed towards the city,” he replied gruffly. “Why? Do you want a ride or somethin’.”

“Yes, sir. If it is possible.” She kept up the kind act and it worked on him. He let her into the car and started driving again. A few miles down the road, Adriana reached for the knife that she had hidden up her sleeve. 

“Sorry, but this might hurt a little bit.” She said as she slit his throat. The car started veering off the road. She gained control of the steering wheel. Will all her strength, she body checked the man out of the out of the car. She climbed into the front seat and stopped the car. She walked back to where he was laying on the ground. She picked up his body and threw it in the back of the car, and drove off to Geoff’s house.  
Geoff was waiting outside the house when she got there. He smiled giddily, it was time to finish making Adriana, Adriana. She parked the car in the garage and got out and went to Geoff. He smiled and hugged her.

“How’d it go, kid?” He asked.

“It worked, now let’s just hope that no one finds out I wasn’t even in the car in the first place.”

“Did you throw your phone out too?” He questioned.

“Yeah, don’t want anyone tracking me.” They went into the house and went up to the nearest bathroom. On the way there, they passed Michael, Ray and the strange British man. It was strange that she still didn’t know what his name was. 

As soon as they were out of sight, Ray and Adriana heard a thump and something that sounded like a bird come from the room. Ray just sighed and shook his head. It seemed that he was used to this behaviour between the two men.  
She and Ray made their way up the stairs, and went into the bathroom. On the countertop was a box of hair dye, a box of contacts, and some scissors. Adriana mentally prepared herself for what was about to happen. 

Ray walked her over to sit on the side of the tub. He grabbed the scissors on the way over. Adriana sat down, and Ray stood behind her in the tub. In a few moments, she felt her hair getting clipped shorter. She said a silent goodbye to her long hair, and prayed that she wouldn’t look stupid with short hair. Soon, not soon enough, she thought, Ray finished cutting her hair. He stepped out of the tub and walked over to get the hair dye. They were bleaching her hair and dying it dark blonde. 

Ray finished putting the dye in and a while later, she rinsed it out and went to look in the mirror. At first the person in the mirror didn’t look like her. She looked much older, her face looked more square, and her eyes looked bigger, with the help of the contacts.

Ray gave a wolf whistle, “Lookin’ good Carpetti.” Adriana turned pink, “Shut up, ya stupid druggie.” Ray just laughed as they walked out of the room. They made their way downstairs where everyone else was sitting. 

When Adriana walked into the room, Geoff gave an approving nod. He turned towards their motley crew and addressed them saying, "Okay listen up fuckwads. Adriana over here," he gestured towards her, "just got a new makeover." Michael just flipped her off, but Jack gave her an approving nod. The strange British man, seriously how did she not know his name, punched Michael saying, "Oh sod off boy, she looks great!" He said boy in such a strange way, like there was an 'i' at the end, instead of a 'y', maybe it was just his accent though. The man turned towards her and gave her a thumbs up. Adriana gave him a hesitant thumbs up back, she still didn't fully trust this guy, he seemed way to happy to be here.

Geoff seemed to sense her hesitation around the man. "This here," he walked over towards the man and patted him on the shoulder, "is Gavin Free." The man, Gavin, let out a shriek akin to a bird, and somehow managed to fall over. Michael sighed as if this was normal. "Come on Grabin, he barely touched you!" Michael exclaimed, but helped Gavin get up anyway. They had a strange relationship, that's for sure. 

Adriana looked towards Ray for help, but he was just chuckling to himself. That's what friends are for, she sighed to herself. While the crew members were doing fuck knows what, Adriana took it upon herself to go explore the house. She was part of the crew, so she could, right? As soon as she turned to walk out of the room, Geoff grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side. "Do you want a tour of the house from me, or do you want to explore on your own?"

She considered his offer for a moment. If she explored herself, she may go somewhere they didn’t want her to, but then why would he offer it to her. But if she let him guide her then she would really know where everything was. “I’ll let you lead me around.” She finally answered him, she didn’t know if there were places she wasn’t supposed to see, and she didn’t want to find out. 

Geoff turned towards the crew, “Okay fucktards, I’m taking Adriana on a tour, don’t destroy the house like last time.” Last time? That must mean that the members were inducted individually. She recalled the folder that said she was member 6 of 7. Who is the last person, she wondered to herself. This seemed like a perfect size for a crew, why would they possibly need one more. She heard someone call her name and she blinked and looked around. Geoff was looking at her expectantly. “Uhhh. What?” She asked dumbly. 

Geoff sighed. “I asked if you were ready.” She nodded dully. Geoff turned to the crew and gave them a wave, then a glare. Must be their final warning not to destroy anything. Then he turned around and led her into the kitchen. He showed her the rest of the rooms on the first floor which included a master bedroom and bathroom, two more bedrooms, the kitchen, dining room, a sitting room, the living room, a different bathroom, and a powder room. It also looked like there was a door leading out to the backyard. As Geoff rounded the corner towards the living room, where the rest of the crew was, a loud squawk was heard. Geoff gave another sigh and stepped into the room. Gavin was on the floor, and Michael was on top of him, it looked like they were wrestling, or more like, Michael was hitting Gavin without any complaint from the Brit. This really was a strange crew. 

Geoff just shook his head and walked through the room towards the stairs. Adriana hurried to catch up to him. Geoff led her up the stairs and showed her two more bathrooms, three more bedrooms, one of which was Ray’s, and another was Adriana’s, the other was not yet claimed by anyone, there also was an area that looked like a small kitchen. “For food and stuff, so you don’t have to walk all the way to the kitchen downstairs” Geoff explained. That made sense, no one wants to walk down a flight of stairs for a midnight snack. 

That was the end of the tour, and Geoff led her back to her room, which was not decorated at all. He had explained earlier that he lets the crew decorate their own rooms. She walked in the room and then turned to face Geoff. He told her that someone would come up to get her when dinner was ready, and that she could just relax until then. When he turned and left, he shut the door behind him. Adriana caught a glimpse of an icy smile. She just ignored the look on his face, and turned towards her room. It was giant, probably bigger than the living room of her old home. In fact this whole house was probably bigger than hers, and her three neighbor’s combined. She looked towards her giant bed, the only thing on it was a gray comforter and sheets. She started imagining ways to decorate her room, but suddenly something piqued her interest. 

 

 

 

Adriana remembered the heist room and how there were folders strewn about the table that were most likely full of information on all the members of the crew, much like the one that she read when she first got to the house. The heist room was downstairs though, so she would have to find a way to get in there without anybody noticing her. She would have to do it when everybody was asleep, if there was ever a time like that.

She was deep in thought when she heard someone knock on her door. She scrambled up to go answer it. “Yo, dinner is ready.” Ray stated when she opened the door. He turned to let her out of the door and go downstairs into the dining room where everyone was waiting. 

Dinner was uneventful, although Gavin still did not take off his stupid golden sunglasses the whole time, though since no one commented on it, Adriana assumed it must just be normal for him to wear those all the time. The more Adriana thought about those glasses, the more she thought that they could be hiding something. After all, someone’s eyes tell everything, and if you don’t want people knowing, you won't flaunt them. So there must be something that he’s hiding. Or maybe she’s just overthinking it, and he just has sensitive eyes.

Soon enough dinner ended, and they all went to do their own things. Michael went to his room, complaining about Gavin, who squeaked out reasons as to why he was being annoying. Jack and Geoff both went into the master bedroom. Which left Adriana, Ray, and Gavin alone in the living room. Ray headed upstairs to go to bed, and Gavin went down the hallway, possibly towards his own room.  
Finally Adrianna was free to try to go to the heist room to try to figure out who everyone was and who the next person coming into the crew would be. Geoff had told her during the tour that the house had no cameras on the inside of the house, Geoff trusted his crew. Adriana was planning to take full advantage of that fact. 

She walked down the hallway away from the bedrooms, towards the heist room. She got more nervous as she got closer to the room. It was just a room, she had no reason to be nervous. But it wasn’t the room she was worried about, it was what was inside of the room that had the butterflies in her stomach swirling up a storm.

She finally got the room and tested the door to see if it was unlocked. It must be her lucky day, because the door swung silently open. She took a hesitant step into the room, turned the lights on and quickly shut the door. There were no folders on the table this time, so she walked over towards the filing cabinet. There were three drawers, and each one was labelled with a different section of the crew. The top drawer was labelled MAIN CREW, the second, OUTER CIRCLE, and the third, INSIDE. Adriana went straight to the top drawer, she wanted to know about the main crew. 

She opened to drawer to the main crew. There were seven folders. The first was labelled ‘Geoff Ramsay’, then ‘Jack Pattillo’, then ‘Michael Jones’, then ‘Ray Narvaez Jr.’, then hers and then an unlabelled one, although it looked like there were papers inside it. She went to read her own folder first. Adriana wanted to know what they had to say about her, and why they chose her to be part of the crew. 

She set her folder down on the table, sat down, and prepared herself for what was in the folder that brought her to this crew.

 

 

There was nothing very interesting. There were plenty of pictures from when she was younger, to just days before she was introduced to the crew. There were typed documents that she didn’t have any real ambition to read at the moment. One document, though, caught her eye. It was a timeline that looked as though it went into the future. It started with next week and went all the way to next year. It looked as though it had jobs listed on it. Next week started with ‘Errands with Meg’ and the end of next year was ‘Honeypot with Gavin’. Adriana had vague idea of what honeypot was, she knew it was used to help gather information, but she didn’t know how or how it differed from a normal way of getting information. Adriana didn’t know how she felt about being alone with Gavin for any reason, although maybe by then she would have warmed up to him. Maybe the ice surrounding him would have melted, or maybe she’ll grow some ice of her own. 

She flipped through the folder some more. It looked like there were a lot of forged legal documents. One for her name. Driver’s license. Other things of that nature. There was nothing else in the folder that caught her eye. It was mostly mumbo-jumbo to her, since she didn’t really know much about about crews or how they worked. 

She went to go put her folder back, and as she slid it back into place, she heard voices down the hall. It sounded like Jack and… Geoff? The male voice was hard to pick out, but since the two were nearly inseparable, she knew it had to be Geoff. Adriana panicked for a moment. There was no where to go in this room ,except maybe between the filing cabinet and the wall, if she could fit in that tiny corner. She closed the drawer and as quietly and quickly as she could, she ran over to the light switch and shut off the lights. It was suddenly pitch black in the room, since the lights were the only source of light. She made her way over to the small corner by the filing cabinet and got as comfortable as possible in the cramped corner. 

The door opened and in walked Jack and Geoff.

“I’m saying we should wait until we have more evidence.” Geoff was saying. More evidence about what?

Jack interrupted Geoff, “But we don’t have enough time to wait until we have more evidence. We have to get Adriana adjusted and this needs to happen soon. We can’t take a rookie out so we need to bring him in.” Bring who in? What were they talking about? What is happening soon? Adriana was very confused.

“Listen,” Geoff sighed, “why don’t we just bring in an outer circle member. They’ve worked with us before, hell, they’re the outer circle. Then there’s no chance of dissonance with the rest of the crew so close to the set-up. We already know that we can bring in people like Jeremy to do the same thing, so why do we need him now.” Adriana was getting more confused as the conversation went on and really the only thing she was worried about, was getting caught. 

“-like Jeremy can pull off what we need him to do. He has too much of a conscience to do that.” Jack walked over towards the filing cabinet. Adriana held her breath, she didn’t want to know what would happen if she was caught, she did not want to go back to the basement. Jack opened the drawer and she panicked for a moment, there was a lull in the conversation, and then Jack must have grabbed something, because the drawer shut and the conversation continued. Adriana couldn’t pay attention to the rest of the conversation, she was too busy trying to catch her breath as she pressed herself closer to the wall.

The conversation was slowly fading as Jack and Geoff left the room. Adriana finally got out of the corner and hurried out of the heist room and upstairs to her room. She fell into a restless sleep trying to figure out what Jack and Geoff’s conversation was about.


End file.
